Ticket sales are already way ahead of last year’s pace, says show runner Lance Fensterman, global group v-p at ReedPOP, which produces pop culture festivals around the world. “Sales are pacing about 190% ahead of last year,” he told PW. “All four-day and three-day passes are already sold, and so is about 70% of our retail inventory.” He expects all the tickets to be sold out before the show—walkup sales will not be possible. “I already know what attendance is going to be, given the space, about 100,000 to 110,000.”

My NYCC preview for Publishers Weekly also gives a metric for the expansion of comic cons over the last five years: according to John Cunningham, DC’s vp of marketing, attendance has doubled at the shows DC attends. That’s not counting San Diego, obviously, which is static. But everywhere else, comic cons are go go go.

Much more in the link, but the bottom line is that everything except Friday is already sold out, and that is almost certain to be sold out by show time; with no onsite press or pro registration, just like San Diego, you gotta learn to PLAN AHEAD.

Heidi MacDonald is the founder and editor in chief of The Beat. In the past, she worked for Disney, DC Comics, Fox and Publishers Weekly. She can be heard regularly on the More To Come Podcast. She likes coffee, cats and noble struggle.

oh yeah, it can become a mosh pit of epic proportions at times. especially around the vendor’s area and where the companies like marvel, dc, etc., set up their booths. i usually hang out in artist alley, which at times can become crowded, but for the most part (at least for the last couple of years) the crowds haven’t been too bad there. we’ll see how it goes this year, hopefully the folks that run nycc have got their shit together when it comes to security and crowd control.